Essay: AI in Game Design
by LucasJG
Summary: An Essay that focuses on topics on Artificial Intelligence. Do games use this to its full potential? Or just a storytelling tool? My idea in this essay is to point out the faults in specific game design choices while at the same time commend them for their good points. I try to refrain from bias ideology. But I hope this leaves you with food for thought. Enjoy. :)


What is the purpose of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in games? Are they used to make the game fun? Do they enrich the experience of the game? Does it make the game feel real? What about these question: Is the AI life-like? Does it give good player/AI interaction? And is it smart?

In a lot of games, AI is used within single player campaigns. To allow the player to face challenges as he/she progresses through the game. We see AI in games like God of War, Halo, Call of Duty, Naruto Ultimate Ninja storm, etc. In these games. The AI is programmed to face you in combat. In some of these games, say God of War. A story helps to drive the game forward as the AI does its part in making the enemies move and interact with the player in their designed ways based on the character. This leads to addictive fun when you plow through enemies and show them your skill at the game. But can you converse with the AI characters in game?

In some games like Mass Effect, doki doki literature club, and many others. They allow the player to choose how their character responds to situations within the game. In effect, the story changes based on their decisions. Doki doki literature club, even adding actual interaction with the game files. Creating the illusion that deleting or removing the character files from within the game. Kills those said characters. However, these games are limited to only what the game provides. If you wish to find out more about a particular character. It is impossible, as such an option was not programmed into the game.

However, in such games as the ones listed in the above paragraph, another form of player/AI interaction is possible. Which is the two way choice selection. How the AI responds to your choices. Chris Crawford, a well known computer game designer who left the commercial game industry since 1992, focused on experimenting on ideas for interactive storytelling and created a personality model which allows for realistic interaction between the AI and the player. In his model he introduced the values known as (Bad/Good, False/Honest, and Timid/Powerful. As well as their negative counterparts and their perception values). As the player presses through the game, the AI's choices are influenced by this personality model, For example: if an AI character's perception of your character's Bad/Good value AKA pBad/Good was within the negative values. The AI would understand that your character is a bad person in game. Which would affect its decision on how that AI would respond to your choices.

This level of interaction can no doubt enhance the very nature of how Visual Novels are made and enable a realistic interactive experience.

Interestingly, back in the 80's. Text Adventures though they suffered from the lack of graphics also showed this same problem. As the player was limited on the questions he/she could ask and some questions getting the same response. "Sorry, I don't know about this village." This leads into a lack of immersion within the game world and the player. As the player is unable to gain information about the things that interest them. This is one area of the Text Adventures that could have made a different within it's game design. More engaging and smart AI interaction.

Think of this scenario: "You are in a small village known as the village of fire. To the north of your location you see a castle in the distance. It's walls are extremely high, making any trespasser think twice of scaling those walls. You see three people one standing by a local clothes shop, the other by the food stand, and lastly the other by the weapon smith's shop."

You decide to ask one of them. "What can you tell me about the castle to the north?" The man replies: "That castle is where the kingdom of fire resides. Their king, king Darios lives within that castle heavily guarded by thousands of soldier. It is impossible to infiltrate.". As you ask the other two men, they proceed to give you completely different answers from the first. Each with important information. From there, you can ask them about their village, or about themselves if you're interested in their character.

What is good about this level of interaction is that the back story isn't shoved into the player's face. He/she can learn what he/she wishes to know by simply asking the populous. Even though this does give the illusion of a realistic environment within the village. It is important to note that this is only giving plain details of the scenery around you. Which is most likely hard coded into the game. To make these AI's smart and life-like would require making them move to locations within the village. For example: Having one of them turn up for work early as a worker to a food store. Or have them visit locations based on what is needed for their needs. (Instead of giving you a side quest for looking for a cat for instance) These are one of many ways of enhancing the player/AI interaction.

Another way of improving player/AI interaction is through games that require combat or strategy. In a lot of games, harder difficulty is one of the most annoying difficulty levels of many games. Not because it annoys the hell out of you when the AI outsmarts you, but because the damage by the enemy is increased drastically. While them taking damage is decreased exponentially.

We see this even in strategy games like Fire Emblem Awakening. Where on the very first level of lunatic mode you are introduced by enemies that have way higher levels than your characters and have skills that could one shot your characters to death. It is true that this adds tension especially when you're playing on custom. However, though the AI aims for your weaker units or healers, which in itself are good strategies, that's all they do, and unless you stand on their attack range. They won't budge from their location.

When levels of difficulty are taken into consideration. I believe that smarter AI tops OP enemies by a long shot. As it adds a more fun experience, showing that you do have skill as a strategist for Chrome's army. The same applies to fighting games, when you look at tournament level play. A lot of strategies are used into conditioning, baiting, taking control of the flow of battle, etc. These are levels of difficulty that should also be applied to these types of games. Overall, I'm not saying that an AI should be extremely smart to the point of becoming unbeatable. But to instead avoid the idea of making enemies stronger than they need to be. (This however, is just my opinion on my experiences with these types of games)

Essay on AI in Game Design


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